Abstract
Negative pressure pulmonary edema (NPPE) is a rare anaesthetic complication, which is not yet mentioned in Czech literature. NPPE is a type of a non-cardiac pulmonary edema, caused by negative intrathoracic pressure following airway obstruction.
Young healthy males, able to develop extreme inspiratory effort. are most prone to this complication. NPPE occurs in 0.1 % of all general anaesthetics but is very likely under-diagnosed.
Although the treatment is relatively easy and the prognosis is great in most cases, any delay or misdiagnosis can lead to hypoxic damage or death. In this article we describe three cases of possible NPPE recently admitted to our ICU, and discuss the current knowledge of this phenomenon.